20 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



dry before that state of happiness comes to the land 

 things, but the spring condition of each of them is 

 comparative. The air and the earth warmed by the 

 day's sun relapse at night far more readily than the 

 water does. Ten degrees on the field may be lost in 

 a night, while one degree in the pond is still there the 

 next morning and ready to take to it another while 

 the field is warming up to yesterday's heat. And 

 the water-plants have no cumbrous machinery of root 

 and root-fibre to get under weigh before they can 

 grow. They grow entirely through their leaves and 

 stalks, which are spread in a far more stable atmos- 

 phere than the air. They are more in the sun and 

 less in the wind than the reeds are, and the pond will 

 be covered with white stars before the reeds have 

 begun to shoot. 



